R S Gavai of the Republican Party of India contested the election for the first time in 1957 and came second. Since then he has more or less been a regular, he was back in the fray in 1996 when he came second once again, but this time behind the Sena's Anantrao M Gudhe. This was only the second time that the Congress lost the election from this constituency, the first time being in 1989 when the CPI's Sudam Deshmukh won 59 % of the vote.